BIOLOGY 1M03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 50: Biotic Component, Crypsis, Amazon River
Document Summary
Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their environment. After spending four or five years feeding and growing in the ocean, salmon travel long distances to return to stream where they hatched. Females create nests in the gravel stream bottom and lay eggs. Nearby males compete for the chance to fertilize eggs as they are laid. When breeding is finished, all adults die: biologists want to know how these individuals interact with their physical surroundings and with other organisms in and around the stream. Which females get best nesting sites and lay most eggs. Which males are most successful in fertilizing eggs. How do individuals cope with transition from living in saltwater to living in freshwater. Community ecology: a biological community consists of the species that interact with each other within a particular area, researchers ask how species interact with each other and the consequences of those interactions.